Xianfeng period
On February 11th, the second year of Xianfeng (February 1852, seventeen years old), Ye Henala was recruited into the palace and made a noble.
the Queen
Xianfeng four years on February 2 (1854, 19 years old), Jinfeng Yi 'an.
In the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), in March, Zai Chun, the only prince of Xianfeng Emperor, was born and became a imperial concubine.
At the beginning of the first month of the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857, 22 years old), Yi Guifei of Jinfeng. [2]
Emperor Xianfeng is weak and sick. At the same time, in the Qing Dynasty, the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing in the north, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the south opposed the peasant movement in the Qing Dynasty, which made him exhausted at home and abroad. Yi Guifei is a calligrapher, so Emperor Xianfeng often dictated to him to write and read the memorial, and allowed Yi Guifei to express his opinions, so many ministers were dissatisfied with Ye Lashi. [3]
Tongzhi period
1860, before the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing, Yehnara fled to Jehol with Emperor Xianfeng. [4]
Emperor Xianfeng died in Jehol in August, 186 1. Before his death, Prince Zai Yuan, Zheng Qinwang Duanhua, Jing Shou, Co-organizer, Shangshu Su Shun, Yin Mu, Kuangyuan, Du Han and Jiao Youying were appointed as Zanxiang Government Affairs King Chenta to assist Tongzhi Emperor Zai Chun in handling state affairs. He also gave the queen and the crown prince (presided over by the emperor's biological mother Yi Guifei) two seals representing imperial power, hoping that they would contain each other. [3]
Tongzhi emperor
After the death of Emperor Xianfeng, Prince Zai Chun ascended the throne with the title of "Jixiang". Ye Henala and Niu Zhilu (then Empress Cian of Nakamiya) were honored as Empresses. Empress Dowager Cixi was very dissatisfied with the eight ministers' attempt to monopolize power, so she teamed up with Prince Gong Yixin, the younger brother of Xianfeng Emperor who presided over the peace talks in Beijing, and took advantage of the opportunity of the Queen and Xianfeng Emperor Zi Gong to return to Beijing to launch a Xinyou coup, designed and arrested eight ministers, and sentenced Prince Zai Yuan and Zheng Qinwang to suicide, Su Shun was beheaded, and others were dismissed. Yixin was named king of deliberation. [2]
186 1 year 65438+ February 2nd, the title was changed to Tongzhi, and the Empress Dowager of the two palaces ruled hall of mental cultivation and listened to politics. In the early days of her administration, with the help of Wang Yixin, who was in charge of deliberation and administration, she reorganized the bureaucracy, used a large number of Han officials, and relied on Zeng Guofan, Zuo, Li Hongzhang and other Han landlords to arm herself. With the support of the great powers, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Nianjun, Miao and Hui uprisings were suppressed successively, which eased the ruling crisis of the Qing Dynasty and made the Qing Dynasty temporarily stable. In order to maintain the feudal autocratic rule, she also attached great importance to the Westernization School, developed some military and civilian industries and trained the navy and army to strengthen the political power on the principle of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth". Objectively, it has played a positive role in China's modernization. During this period, the domestic uprising was put down, and the two opium wars temporarily satisfied the greed of the great powers, and there was no big diplomatic loss. After the Westernization Movement, the military strength of the Qing Dynasty improved and the industry and commerce developed initially, which was called "Tongzhi Zhongxing". [5]
Tongzhi eleven years (1872), Zai Chun 17 years old. After Cixi had to choose for him, the next year, the Empress Dowager of the two palaces rolled up the curtain and went to the yamen. However, after the Tongzhi emperor came to power, it was still difficult to get rid of Cixi's intervention. For fun, Cixi instructed the Tongzhi emperor to repair the Yuanmingyuan residence for her. Emperor Tongzhi also wanted to take this opportunity to let Empress Dowager Cixi leave the palace to get rid of Cixi's interference in state affairs. However, at that time, there was a shortage of financial resources, the Yuanmingyuan was seriously damaged and the repair cost was very high. Emperor Tongzhi insisted on starting work, which aroused the opposition of many princes and ministers such as Yi Xin, and the emperor Tongzhi dismissed them all. Cixi stepped forward and stopped the decision of the Tongzhi emperor. [6]
Guangxu years
1June 875, Emperor Tongzhi died of illness. Cixi made Aisin-Gioro Zaitian, her nephew (her husband's nephew) and nephew, 4 years old, emperor, and changed the year number to Guangxu, and Empress Dowager Cixi once again listened to politics.
the Queen
From 1865 to 1870, Akuta, an invader of the Central Asian Khanate, invaded and stole most of Xinjiang. 187 1 year, Russia sent troops to occupy Yili area. 1875, Cixi adopted the suggestion of Governor Zuo of Shaanxi but Gansu and sent troops to Xinjiang. The Qing army recaptured Xinjiang on 1878+0. 188 1 year, China recovered most of Yili through Sino-Russian negotiations. [7]
188 1 On April 8th, the Empress Dowager Ci 'an suddenly collapsed and died at the age of 45. Officially, it was a cerebral hemorrhage, which was attributed to Cixi in unofficial history.
From 1883 to 1885, the Sino-French war broke out, and both sides won and lost militarily. However, the Qing government headed by Cixi advocated "winning by winning" and signed the Sino-French New Testament with France, which made France gain many aggressive benefits. [8]
1On April 8th, 884, Cixi launched the change of the Yi Shu dynasty in Shen Jia, relieved the whole shift of the military department headed by Prince Gong Yixin, and started the Nishinomiya dictatorship.
1February 889, Guangxu got married, nominally ruled by Emperor Guangxu, and Cixi lectured for several years. After the political training, all North Korean personnel are still in their hands. "Empress Dowager Cixi (Emperor Guangxu) is sincerely honored, and the court is responsive."
1894, Prince Chun took advantage of Cixi's 60th birthday, and planned to "celebrate in the Summer Palace, following the example of Kangxi and Qianlong, and set up a colorful shed and hold a ceremony from the city to the garden". Mobilize naval funds, repair the Summer Palace, decorate the scenery and collect donations. That year coincided with Japan's launching of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Guangxu main battle, Cixi also main battle, "no weakness". However, when someone proposed to stop the Summer Palace project, stop the construction of scenic spots and switch to military spending, Cixi was furious and said, "I am unhappy today, and I will make him unhappy for life." Later, the Qing army suffered repeated defeats in the Korean battlefield, and the Beiyang Navy suffered serious setbacks in the battle of the Yellow Sea. In order not to affect her 60th anniversary celebration, Cixi hoped that foreign countries would intervene and end the war as soon as possible. She supported Li Hongzhang's policy of avoiding war and seeking peace, and attacked the hawks headed by Guangxu with various excuses. Due to the increasingly tense situation and the heavy pressure of the ruling and opposition parties, she can no longer go her own way and put on airs, so she has to change her original plan and reduce the scale of the birthday celebration. Cixi spent her 60th birthday in Ningshou Palace, the Forbidden City, when Jinzhou and Dalian fell one after another and Lushun was in danger. On February 7th, the following year, ahava Japanese warships and batteries attacked Liu Gongdao, and the Beiyang Navy was wiped out. China's land and sea battlefields were both defeated, and the main peace faction headed by Cixi made up its mind to make peace with Japan. In March, Cixi sent Li Hongzhang as the plenipotentiary and went to Japan for peace. /kloc-in April of 0/7, an unprecedented humiliating treaty in the history of China, treaty of shimonoseki, was signed. China gave up Korea's suzerain status, paid 200 million taels of silver and ceded Liaodong Peninsula (with the intervention of western powers such as Russia, Germany and France, it later paid 30 million taels of silver). [9]
After the failure of the Sino-Japanese War, the powers set off a frenzy to carve up China. In order to save the nation and survive, the bourgeois reformists launched the Reform Movement (known in history as the Reform Movement of 1898). As for the political reform, Cixi hoped to strengthen the country, and worried that Guangxu would get rid of his control through the political reform. At first, she expressed support, but later she took military power and human rights into her own hands. 1June, 898, Guangxu promulgated the emperor's "Ming Ding Guo as an imperial edict" (that is, "Ming Ding Guo as an imperial edict") and implemented political reform. Emperor Guangxu's political reform touched the interests of Manchu nobles and many feudal bureaucrats. They gathered together and tried their best to oppose political reform. When they heard that Emperor Guangxu tried to get Yuan Shikai to send troops around the garden to kill Rong Lu, Cixi and others staged a coup in 1898, detained Emperor Guangxu and killed six people including Tan Sitong. [ 10]
Xun Zheng in his later years
1898 After the coup, the Boxer Rebellion rose in northern China. Cixi initially suppressed, but the suppression failed repeatedly, and the Boxer Rebellion developed rapidly and entered Beijing. Cixi hoped to suppress the Boxer Rebellion and treat it differently, but the powers demanded that the Qing government completely annihilate the Boxer Rebellion, regardless of the opposition of the Qing government, and insisted on sending troops to Beijing. Cixi has always been dissatisfied with foreigners, so she came up with the idea of using the Boxer Rebellion against the powers and declared war on them. Cixi's decision was opposed by governors in Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong. They jointly sent a telegram to the Qing court, urging the elimination of the Boxer Rebellion, concluding a treaty with the great powers and implementing "mutual protection in the southeast". On the one hand, Cixi asked the provincial governors to carefully arrange the matters of war prevention and continue to use the Boxer Rebellion to besiege the embassy and attack Eight-Nation Alliance; On the other hand, she sent Rong Lu to the embassy to express condolences to the diplomatic envoys of various countries, and sent letters to the heads of state of Russia, Britain, Japan, Germany, the United States, France and other countries, asking them to come forward to "resolve disputes" and "save the current situation", and transferred Li Hongzhang, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, to be governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, to prepare for negotiations with the great powers. However, the G8 did not stop attacking.
August 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing; In the early morning of the next day, when the Donghuamen Gate of the Forbidden City was captured, Cixi fled to xi 'an with Emperor Guangxu and Empress Li Hongzhang as plenipotentiaries to negotiate with the foreign powers, putting the responsibility for the war on the Boxer, and ordering the Boxer to "add pain to suppression". 1901February 14 approved the outline of the peace talks and issued an imperial edict, saying that it was necessary to "measure China's material resources and gain the favor of the country." [1 1] On September 7th, the Treaty of Mourning Ugliness was signed with11imperialist countries, which stipulated that 450 million taels of silver should be paid according to the population of China at that time, and 980 million taels should be paid within 39 years, and the main battle officials should be punished and all the fortresses along Dagu to Beijing should be demolished. [10] In the same year1October 6, 10, Cixi sent tens of thousands of people with 3,000 luggage carts to leave Tongguan from xi 'an via Henan and Zhili, and left on March 61902+1October. [ 12- 13]
In order to maintain her rule and change her image of being conservative and incompetent, Empress Dowager Cixi announced the implementation of the "New Deal" during the "Western Expedition" and carried out reforms in economy, military affairs, education and official system.
1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, and the battlefield was in the northeast of China. The Qing government headed by Cixi declared neutrality, and the result of the war was that Japan defeated Russia. Domestic people generally realize that constitutional monarchy is superior to absolute monarchy and demand the Qing government to carry out constitutional reform; At the same time, the domestic revolutionary movement is also growing. In order to maintain her rule, Cixi made a constitutional gesture. 1905 sent five ministers to study abroad, and 1906 announced preparations for constitutionalism. 1908 promulgated the outline of the king's constitution, imitating the constitutions of Germany and Japan, and safeguarding the "sovereign power" of the emperor. [ 14]
1908, due to Cixi's photo diplomacy, US President theodore roosevelt signed a bill to return boxer indemnity 1000 million US dollars, which was mainly used to help China send overseas students in the United States; After that, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries successively; The total amount of "excess money" returned by seven countries to China is about 300 million taels, which is quite effective in setting up educational undertakings and should be affirmed.
1908165438+1October 14, Emperor Guangxu died and Emperor Dahang had no children. According to her orders, Zai Feng, Prince of Alcohol, was the Regent, and his son Puyi was the emperor, with the year number of Xuan Tong, and Cixi was honored as the Empress Dowager.
1908, 165438+ 10 month, 15, 17 (not exactly three minutes), Ye La died in a Luan Hall in Zhongnanhai at the age of 74. Cixi's last words said: "After that, women can't predict state affairs. This violates North Korea's family law and must be strictly restricted. In particular, we must guard against it and not let eunuchs abuse their power. Things in the late Ming Dynasty can be Yin Jian! " [ 15]
Xuan Tongyuan was buried in Dingdong Mausoleum, Putuo Valley, zunhua city, Hebei Province in October (1909). The emblem is "Empress Dowager Cixi supports Kang Yu Zhuang Qin and presents her to the Empress", posthumous title "Empress Xiao Qin Xian" and posthumous title * * * 22 characters.
Personality assessment
Positive evaluation
Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the few women who have been in power for a long time in the history of China. She is skillful in politics, especially in manipulating the balance of power between pro-expensive courtiers and maintaining her absolute authority. The Qing Dynasty continued her life for decades because of her ability. During the reign of Cixi, the centralization of the Qing court and the sovereignty of China faced various threats from both inside and outside. From the standpoint of defending the authority of the Qing empire and its own power, the measures she took were not successful, but most of them were reasonable in the historical context. In order to cope with the challenges from European and American powers since the Opium War, we suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and other civil resistance forces. Cixi used Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other important Han officials to launch the Westernization Movement at the local level, which was the beginning of China's development of modern industry. With the support of the achievements of Westernization Movement, the Qing court was able to pacify the internal rebel forces, maintain the relatively stable situation of China under the imperial system, and build modern Lu Haijun armaments, thus creating an atmosphere of "rejuvenating the country with the same rule".
Cixi's reform method is actually very clever. The reform of the Hundred Days Reform was too fast. This is just a farce, and it can't be successful. After the disaster in Gengzi, Empress Dowager Cixi realized that the current situation no longer allowed her to adhere to the imperial tradition. The so-called "ancestral law" allowed the Qing court to implement various New Deal measures. There are many contents involved in the post-boxer New Deal, the most important of which include: changing the official system, preparing for constitutionalism, abolishing the imperial examination system, prohibiting women from foot-binding, setting up girls' schools, starting new schools, and building educational undertakings with boxer's refund.
Negative evaluation
Personally, Cixi seized power from the court struggle in a cruel way. 186 1 year, after the death of Emperor Xianfeng in Jehol Summer Resort, the Ye family, who had just become the empress dowager, joined forces with the royal family such as Prince Gong to launch a coup, seized power from the eight ministers group headed by the distant ancestor of the royal family and the actual minister, and executed three of them (Zai Yuan, Duanhuahe). Later, in order to establish and maintain her autocratic power, Empress Dowager Cixi showed no mercy to the cleansing of political opponents. Even her own son, Emperor Tongzhi and Emperor Guangxu, who succeeded her, manipulated and controlled her severely.
From the perspective of China's national sovereignty, Cixi's administrative achievements have also received many negative comments, including 1885' s victory in Zhennan in the war against France, which successfully prevented the French army from landing in Taiwan Province Province, but ended the war by making peace and signing the Sino-French Tianjin Treaty, which made the Qing Empire lose the suzerainty of Annan. In addition, the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese Shimonoseki Peace Treaty of 1895 and the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty of 190 1 deprived China of great benefits because of the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894+0894 and 1900. Cixi's ruling and decision-making have an unshirkable responsibility in the occurrence of these two events. Although Cixi is very capable politically, her supreme goal is still to maintain the Qing Dynasty's rule over China. The results of several wars that humiliated the country and power listed above are not necessarily the same. Among them, the Yiyou Qing Dynasty War and the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War are more favorable than accepting the humiliating conditions of peace talks. However, although the result of continuing the war will defeat France, which was in chaos at that time, or bring down Japan, which was about to run out of national strength at that time, so that the Chinese nation can have a better result, it is very likely that the central government of the Qing Dynasty will lose its authority and go to collapse because of the protracted war. As the head of the supreme power, Cixi refused to cancel the short-sighted discussion and accept the humiliation that had maintained 300 people, which not only reflected her political ability, but also worsened the future of modern China many times. After the Gengzi Incident, when China faced the huge compensation for the contract between Xin and Chou, its extravagance still did not obviously converge, which made the already stretched financial problems in the late Qing Dynasty worse and the people's livelihood languished. [30]
Foreign evaluation
Several people who have seen the Queen Mother describe her as a tall woman with a tall figure and a good face. She has a pair of eagle eyes and obvious Tatar characteristics. Her attitude is noble and arrogant, and her voice has unshakable authority and absolute majesty. [3 1]
-Eliza Ruhama Scidmore's China, Longevity Empire.
As a Manchu woman, the chances of mastering military knowledge are slim, but she is completely different from the Empress Dowager who only knows needlework. She is always as cool as a cucumber when dealing with important affairs. China's door has never been opened to hostile forces, which is unique in the history of China's semi-authoritarian rule. If we want to find the reason, I think we can only say that the ruler himself has a unique quality and talent.
-Arthur H. Smith's "China in turmoil"
In the past thirty years, the most interesting celebrity in China is undoubtedly the lady we call the Empress Dowager. The queen mother was at the forefront of every political reform movement during the period of listening to politics, and the nature of her rule can only be judged from the nature of this period. Diplomatic failure is due to the lack of a clear follow-up center of will and feelings. Its lever can't find a fulcrum. Therefore, the only way to succeed in China is to rely on military force. Is it really impossible to deal with a woman like the queen mother? [32]
-blackwood's magazine
In the Reform Movement of 1898, Empress Dowager Cixi was almost bankrupt and in power, but she also gained a lot from the Reform Movement of 1898, and she began to become a person who supported the innovation policy. In fact, she is far superior to her nephew Emperor Guangxu. "Long live the Queen Mother!" "The queen mother will be in a big position in the future!" Throughout her life, people have expected her to keep advancing the goals that she is very keen to support. She firmly holds the power, and her surging country says that she dares to lead the country's chariot to a new road that no one has ever taken. She knows that she can count on the governors and their support appointed by herself. She also knows that the spirit of reform has spread throughout this land, and the people will support her from the heart.
-W.A.P. Martin's The Awakening of China
Empress Dowager Cixi's first meeting with seven ladies of the diplomatic mission was realized under the efforts and supervision of the foreign minister. 1900 After the turmoil, the imperial court returned to Beijing, and the attitude of the Queen Mother changed greatly. She invited many meetings on her own initiative, and everyone accepted lunch naturally. In private meetings, this great woman will show her wisdom and feminine charm, as well as her brilliance and attraction as a hostess. She will hold the guest's hand and ask us if our trip to the palace is tired with the most concerned tone; She will complain about the cold weather in summer; As long as the food is not to our taste, she is very anxious; She will tell us in the kindest tone that she is lucky to see us. She can charm all the guests, even if she is biased before, she can take good care of every guest, which also shows her sophisticated ability as a hostess.
-Mrs. Conger (the wife of American Ambassador to China) "Letter from China"